Digital Nation and the Ministry of Education and Research have partnered for the implementation of Saro, an AI-based solution, in schools and universities across Romania.

The solution will allow students, pupils, and teachers access to an AI-powered assistant designed to address challenges such as school dropout, excessive bureaucracy, declining motivation, the need for personalized learning, and low class attendance. For instance, students may be greeted in the morning with conversations about weekly planning or essential academic events, according to a release presenting the project. 

The first phase of the project, the pilot stage, will involve the testing, development, and use of Saro with a group of approximately 1,200 students and pupils during the first year. The goal is to increase class attendance and academic performance while reducing dropout rates.

The second phase, focused on scaling, will build on the results of the pilot and research phase to expand the use of Saro to as many students and pupils as possible across the country.

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Saro also provides support for teachers overwhelmed by administrative burdens and large class sizes. The AI assistant can take over part of the administrative workload by offering teachers up-to-date, relevant information about students, and identifying those most in need of support. 

Saro integrates with institutional platforms (such as online gradebooks), monitors daily interactions on learning platforms, and engages with users through voice messages and visual content to assess and support their level of motivation. 

Saro was built entirely in Romania by Digital Nation, following an initial investment of USD 150,000. With the support of a USD 700,000 grant from Google.org, the team is currently developing an improved version with expanded functionalities, tailored for large-scale implementation across Romania’s education system.

The solution was piloted through the Generația Tech program with 1,900 young people and adults. The participants who interacted with Saro completed 28% more assignments than those who did not, and attendance at extracurricular events introduced by Saro increased by 89%. Additionally, nearly 20,000 messages have been exchanged between program participants and Saro to date, Digital Nation said.

“Technology itself is neither good nor bad, but it can become so depending on how we use it. Our children, and the educational environment as a whole, must stay anchored in the technology of the new industrial revolution we are experiencing. Consequently, the Ministry will support high-quality and cutting-edge collaborations that connect Romanian education to this new industrial era—always within a moral, ethical, and safe framework,” Education Minister Daniel David said. 

”Artificial Intelligence has the potential to make significant contributions across all areas of Romanian society, and education stands to be one of its greatest beneficiaries. We are proud to support, through Google.org, the most significant step in integrating AI into Romania’s education system and a global first, proudly developed locally. We are confident that this is just the beginning, and that Romanian education will undergo many positive transformations with the help of new technologies,” says Elisabeta Moraru, Country Director Google Romania.

“For more than three decades, personalized learning and teaching at scale was just a dream. Today, we have the opportunity to provide ultra-personalized support to hundreds of thousands—and even millions—of students. [..] The Saro project, powered by a complex technological framework with over 20 highly specialized AI models, addresses the urgent need to boost student motivation and attention by adapting the educational process to each learner’s pace and interests,” says Paul Apostol, founder of Digital Nation.

Tech organization Digital Nation runs several programs. These include Generația Tech (which has provided free digital skills training to over 10,700 Romanians aged 16 to 65), Profesor în Online (with more than 40,000 teachers trained in digital competencies), IMM în Online, Alfabetar, and others. 

(Photo: Digital Nation)

simona@romania-insider.com